He will have enjoyed Foster’s overall display against Rafa Benitez’s men, although he was perhaps partially at fault for the only goal.

But the goalkeeper, who has ended his international sabbatical, was otherwise excellent.

Clarke believes it was a typical Foster outing.

“He’s like that all the time,” said Clarke. “Ben is a top goalkeeper and makes great saves. He’s been really good for us this season.

“He had a spell out injured and took a bit of time to get over that. Now you can see he’s back in top form and he plays like that week in, week out.

“He’s made Roy happy because he’s made himself available for selection and it gives Roy a nice problem.”

He continued: “When you’re only one behind you’ve always got a chance.

“We speak quite a lot about when we play against the top teams, or when we play every week, you just have to stay in the game.

“We stayed in the game until the last minute but just couldn’t quite get the clear-cut chance that would have got us the point.”

Yesterday’s game was Clarke’s first return to Stamford Bridge as a boss, having served the club as a player and coach.

He was keen for Albion to concentrate on the game, rather than the side-show – inevitably centring around Benitez.

He added: “The crowd don’t play.We spoke a lot about the qualities of Demba Ba up front and the problems that Hazard and Mata and various players could cause us, including Frank Lampard arriving from midfield.

“I spoke for about 20 minutes this morning and I didn’t once mention the crowd – I spoke about the opposition.

“Chelsea fans are always good to me. I’ve been back here on a number of occasions since I Ieft.

“I think the fact I was 12 years as a player and eight as a coach and did okay for them entitles me to a good reception.